Improving the thermal insulation property of polyester resin

Abstract

The aim of this research is to study the effect of fiber glass on the thermal insulation property of polyester resin . Different amounts of fiber glass were added to the polyester resin with hardener then cast as sheet of composite material of dimension (20*20*0.3) cm3 with different fiber glass weight percentage : ( 0% , 4 % , 8 % , 12 % , 16 % , 20 % ) of the total weight. The thermal conductivity was calculated by using Lee’s Disk method . The mean value of five measurements of thermal conductivity ( k ) for each specimen was measured , also the hardness of the specimens was measured by using shore method type D and then sketch the relation between thermal conductivity and hardness with the percentage of fiber glass. The results showed that the thermal conductivity (k) of polyester decreased (which mean thermal insulation increased ) with an increase of fiber glass percentage , and the hardness increased with the increase of fiber glass percentage due to the restricted movement of the chain end of polymer .